We Can!™ Community News Feature

From a Child’s Perspective

Thanks for letting me spend the day at Jorge’s. It was cool‚ but kind of strange‚ too.
His mom made us a snack of veggies and dip.

At first I thought‚ “Yuck!” I was wrong. It turns out I like carrots and peppers‚ and you couldn’t even tell that she’d used low–fat sour cream.

I asked‚ “Where’d the pizza bites go?” She said that they stayed in the grocery store!

Here’s the deal: Jorge’s dad found out he has high blood pressure. And that the doctor said he needs to change what he eats and be more active.

That’s when it hit me—what you eat and do really does make a difference.
Jorge’s mom said it was time for the whole family to start learning to eat right and get up and off the couch. Truth is‚ some kids were hassling Jorge because he’s bigger. But since his mom’s started making small changes‚ Jorge says he has‚ like‚ more energy or something!

And it’s true. We did all this new stuff outside. We rode our bikes all around the neighborhood. I thought I’d be really tired when it was over‚ but I had more energy!

And‚ get this! It was Saturday but we didn’t watch any TV. And I didn’t miss it!

After the ride‚ we made dinner together‚ washing veggies for this thing called “stir fry.” It was FUN! We ate all differen–colored foods and I even tried asparagus‚ which was good! Can you believe I liked something GREEN!

After dinner‚ Jorge’s mom said something really strange. She said it was a “GO Food” night and pointed to a sheet on her fridge that talked about GO‚ SLOW and WHOA foods. GO foods are foods we can eat often because they’re good for us. So‚ for dessert we got tasty fat–free yogurt with strawberries on top!

Jorge’s mom says they get tips on how to eat right‚ be more physically active and cut TV and computer time‚ from We Can! (Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity & Nutrition)‚ a program by the National Institutes of Health‚ which is pretty cool.